An underwater photographer and filmmaker who has been awarded the U.S. Antarctica Service Medal, as well as the only photographer to have been awarded the prestigious Pew Marine Conservation Fellowship, Norbert Wu here takes us into the sub-freezing waters below the sheet ice around Antarctica. His stunning photographs, presented here up to 15 x 10 inches, reveal an alien and beautiful world teeming with life. In the extreme conditions in these seas, sponges can grow as big as bears, jellyfish tentacles extend 30 feet, and giant sea spiders crawl through beds of soft coral. Wu also shows us the birds and mammals living at the edge of water and ice, from curious Weddell seals to penguins flying underwater like air force squadrons.

"The water stays at a constant 28.6 degrees Fahrenheit all year, and there is an abundance of life—at times comparable in biomass and diversity to what can be found in a tropical coral reef.... Wu's images showcase penguins and seals (both above and below the ice), whales, and his fellow divers, but it is the ubiquitous presence of the ice in all its myriad forms that makes the photos magical."—Booklist